PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Prime Minister, welcome back to Washington. The
Prime Minister and I had a fascinating discussion the last time he was
here. We were sitting on the Truman Balcony. We spent probably an
hour-and-a-half strategizing about how we can work together to achieve
peace. Our conversation today continued this -- that important
dialogue.

I appreciate the Prime Minister's strategic thoughts. He cares deeply
about his country, and he cares deeply about securing the peace. We
talked about our commitment to a two-state solution. We talked about
the need for a Palestinian government to embrace the principles of the
Quartet and the road map, which both our governments strongly support.

We spent a great deal of time on Iran, and about how we can work
together with other nations of the world to convince the Iranians to
abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions. I recognize the threat to
world peace that the Iranians propose -- that the Iranians pose, as does
the Prime Minister. We talked about Iraq. We talked about a variety of
issues.

But the whole central thrust of our discussions was based upon our
understanding that we're involved in an ideological struggle between
extremists and radicals versus people who just simply want to live in
peace, and that as democracies we have an obligation, obviously, to
listen to the will of our people, but at the same time, work together to
help those who want to live in a peaceful society achieve their
ambitions.

Mr. Prime Minister, it has been a delight to be with you again. Welcome
back.

PRIME MINISTER OLMERT: Thank you very much. President -- this is
nothing to take an edge to the very accurate analysis that you made with
regard to these big issues. We in the Middle East have followed the
American policy in Iraq for a long time, and we are very much impressed
and encouraged by the stability which the great operation of America in
Iraq brought to the Middle East. We pray and hope that this policy will
be fully successful so that this stability which was created for all the
moderate countries in the Middle East will continue.

We shared thoughts about the Iranian threat. There is no question that
the Iranian threat is not just a threat for Israel, but for the whole
world. The fanaticism and the extremism of the Iranian government, and
the fact that the leader of a nation such as Iran can threaten the very
existence of another nation, as he does towards the state of Israel, is
not something that we can tolerate or would ever tolerate, and certainly
not when we know that he is trying to possess nuclear weapons. And I'm
very encouraged by our discussion and thoughts that we have exchanged
about what needs to be done in the Middle East.

Finally, I say time and again, on different occasions, that we want to
open a serious dialogue with the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority.
And I will make every possible effort to help Abu Mazen to get into such
a dialogue with us. Indeed, we hope that the new government will be
established soon on the basis of the Quartet and the road map, and that
will allow an immediate contact between him and me that I'm sure will
lead to extend this negotiation process.

Again, Mr. President, it's always a great joy to be with Your
Excellency. And I always thank you for your friendship -- your personal
friendship, and even more important, your friendship for the state of
Israel.

Q Mr. President, the Senate -- the incoming Senate Democratic leaders
have called for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. You met this
morning with the Baker commission. Would you accept any solution that
included a timetable, and what options did you discuss this morning with
the Baker commission?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Tom, I'm not going to prejudge the Baker commission's
report. I was pleased to meet with them. I was impressed by the
quality of the -- of their membership. I was impressed by the questions
they asked. They are -- they want us to succeed in Iraq, just like I
want to succeed.

And so we had a really good discussion. I'm not sure what the report is
going to say. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I believe this: I
believe that it's important for us to succeed in Iraq, not only for our
security, but for the security of the Middle East, and that I'm looking
forward to interesting ideas. In the meantime, General Pete Pace is
leading investigations within the Pentagon as to how to reach our goal,
which is success, a government which can sustain, govern, and defend
itself, and will serve as an ally in this war on terror.

I believe it is very important, though, for people making suggestions to
recognize that the best military options depend upon the conditions on
the ground.

And so it's an interesting period here in Washington, Mr. Prime
Minister. You might realize the opposition party won, won the Senate
and the House. And what's interesting is, is that they're beginning to
understand that with victory comes responsibilities. And I'm looking
forward to working with the Democrats to achieve common objectives.

Q Mr. President, do you see any change in the administration's
position regarding Syria? Do you support the resumption of
Israeli-Syrian negotiations? And the same question to the Prime
Minister, if I may. In the past, you rejected the resumption of the
Syrian and Israeli negotiations under -- one of the reasons was the
rejection of the American administration regarding the policies of
Syria. Do you see now, after you discuss this matter with the
President, any change in your position regarding Syria?

PRESIDENT BUSH: My answer to your question is, Prime Minister Olmert
knows how to run his own foreign policy. And he can figure out his --
he can figure out his policy towards them. My policy towards Syria is
this: that we expect the Syrians to be, one, out of Lebanon so that the
Lebanese democracy can exist; two, not harboring extremists that create
-- that empower these radicals to stop the advance of democracies;
three, to help this young democracy in Iraq succeed. And the Syrian
President knows my position. We have told that to him through my
administration. We do have an embassy there in Syria. But our position
is very clear, and we would like to see some progress toward peace from
the Syrians.

PRIME MINISTER OLMERT: I share the same opinion with President Bush.
We are not against negotiations with Syria. We would love to be able to
have negotiations with Syria, but that must be based on a certain
reasonable, responsible policy, which is not preformed by Syria for the
time being. Everything that they are doing is to the other direction --
in Lebanon, in Iraq, and the sponsorship of Hamas and Khalid Mashal as
the main perpetrators of terror against the state of Israel. With some
changes in the Russian -- I'm sorry, in the Syrian attitude on these
major issues, I hope that one day the conditions for contacts between
them and us will be created. But to be honest, I don't think at the
present time they manifest any such attitude. And that makes it
impossible.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Matt.

Q Yes, Mr. President, Tony Blair today is going to be calling for a
reaching out to both Syria and Iran to help calm the situation in Iraq.
What is your response to that?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I haven't seen his comments, but you just heard my
response on Syria. And my comments on Iran is this: if the Iranians
want to have a dialogue with us, we have shown them a way forward, and
that is for them to verify -- verifiably suspend their enrichment
activities. We put that proposal on the table awhile back. We said
that if you want to have a dialogue with us, we're willing to come to
the table with the EU, as well as Russia and China, to discuss a way
forward. But first, you must verifiably suspend your enrichment
activities.

Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up
its nuclear weapons ambitions. And that focus is based upon our strong
desire for there to be peace in the Middle East. And an Iran with a
nuclear weapon would be a destabilizing influence. And so we have made
it very clear, our position regards Iran, and it hasn't changed.

Q Mr. President, do you think that it's better to impose sanctions on
Iran or to handle dialogue with them? (Speaking Hebrew.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: I think it's very important for the world to unite with
one common voice to say to the Iranians that, if you choose to continue
forward, you'll be isolated. And one source of isolation would be
economic isolation. In other words, there has to be a consequence for
their intransigence. They have -- we went to the United Nations, we
made it very clear -- we, being a lot of the world -- have made it clear
that the Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions are not in the world's
interest. And therefore, if they continue to move forward with a
program, there has to be a consequence. And a good place to start is
working together to isolate the country.

And my hope is, is that there are rational people inside the government
that recognize isolation is not in their country's interest. And I
also, when I speak about Iran, speak about a government, not about the
Iranian people. I believe the Iranian people want a better way forward.
I don't think they want to confront the world. I believe they need -- I
believe they could benefit by more trade and more openness with the
world. But their leaders have to make the decision, and the decision is
abundantly clear to them. And I say this in the interest of world
peace, that if Iran has a nuclear weapon, it will be incredibly
destabilizing and obviously threatening to our strong ally.

And so my attitude is let's work in concert to convince the government
that it's not just the Israeli voices speaking, or the United States'
voices speaking, but there's a lot of other voices saying the exact same
thing, and present them with a choice.

MR. DECKARD: Thank you all.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Wait a minute. That seems a little unfair. He's got a
strong answer coming, I can feel it. (Laughter.)

PRIME MINISTER OLMERT: She said it in Hebrew, and you can blame him, he
didn't understand the Hebrew part of the question. I'll answer in
Hebrew for the Israeli voters.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Sure.

PRIME MINISTER OLMERT: (Speaking Hebrew.)

And again, I want to thank you, President Bush, for being so gracious to
me and to the state of Israel.